Published: February 22, 2008 11:43 pm            

Kats sharp in final game before state tourney

Heading into Friday night’s regular season finale at Memorial Gymnasium, Wildkat coach Brian McCauley had two primary objectives.

“Obviously No. 1, we wanted to win and No. 2, we wanted to play well and gain some momentum heading into the ‘second season,’” he said. “Both objectives were accomplished.”

Kokomo bolted to an 8-0 lead in the game’s first 65 seconds and rolled to a 65-37 victory over Maconaquah.

It was a game in which Kokomo’s athleticism and defensive pressure simply took over the game. The Kats led 56-22 with 5:39 remaining and for the most part, substitutes from both teams closed out the game.

The win left Kokomo at 12-8 heading into its Class 4A Lafayette Sectional matchup with McCutcheon next Friday night. Maconaquah (8-12) travels to the Class 3A Peru Sectional on Tuesday night for a first round game with Fort Wayne Wayne.

Bringing his first team into Memorial Gymnasium, Maconaquah coach Luke Zartman said he wanted to play the game at his pace.

“With Kokomo’s athletes, there was no way we wanted to get in an up-and-down game with them,” Zartman said. “We wanted to slow them down offensively and take our time when we had the ball.”

Good plan, but the execution just wasn’t there.

Ten seconds into the game, Alston Andrews sped past a defender for a layup and on the Kats’ next two possessions, the team’s top long distance shooter T.J. Weir nailed 3-pointers. It was 8-0 Kats and Maconaquah’s zone was history.

“They hit some big shots early and we had to go to our [man to man] defense,” Zartman said. “And when they put pressure on us, we went into a panic mode. Instead of getting six to 10 passes before shooting, we were making 1-2.”

Zartman said he anticipated the defensive heat Kokomo was able to deliver.

“Pressure on our guards has been an Achilles’ heel for us all season,” he said. “And with Kokomo’s athleticism and those long arms, it was difficult.”

It wasn’t that the number of Maconaquah’s turnovers (16) was so terribly high, as much as it was that Kokomo turned those mistakes into 23 points.

McCauley was understandably excited with his team’s defensive performance.

“I was pleased with our intensity and execution,” he said. “We gave up 37 total points and you look at the second and third quarters, you see we gave up six and five points. [Maconaquah] made just one field goal in the third quarter — that’s just tremendous.

“This was also a very good team victory,” he said. “We not only won, but we had a lot of guys contribute positives. One area we have really improved this season is playing team basketball and we saw that tonight.”

Alan Arnett and Alston Andrews were active on both ends of the court, each scoring 14 points. Andrews added four assists and three rebounds while playing 25 minutes without a turnover, while Arnett enjoyed his most impressive night of the season, adding a team-high eight boards to his 5 of 7 shooting.

Weir was the perfect example of letting the game come to him. A 42 percent shooter from 3-point range, he took just five shots all night — all 3-pointers — hitting four. He also added four assists and four boards and played without a turnover.

Tyrone Brown added 10 points and Patrick Hopkins grabbed seven rebounds on a night when little else went right for him. Jacob Blackamore scored five points and while few may remember his first basket, no one will forget his last. The 6-foot-2 junior took a pass in traffic from the right side, soared from about five feet out and slammed it home with authority, while being fouled in the process.

Jarrid Bradley led the Braves with 14 points and nine boards and Nick George added 11 points. Maconaquah shot just 23 percent (8 of 35) through three quarters, but via a 15-point fourth quarter, bumped the percentage up to 30 by game’s end.

        

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